


The Blank Page

by brittaniansun



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Crack Treated Seriously, M/M, Magical Accidents, Rapunzel Elements, but it's also canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-19
Updated: 2019-11-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 10:20:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21492727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brittaniansun/pseuds/brittaniansun
Summary: When Alec wakes up to find himself alone in a tower he can't escape, he has nothing to do but read. It takes three days to read all the books in the tower, and as he gets to the last book, he begins to find some real answers to how he ended up here.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 6
Kudos: 74





	The Blank Page

**Author's Note:**

  * For [magnusbicon (patrickbrewer)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/patrickbrewer/gifts).

> This is from a very difficult prompt I received from Megan like... last year or some shit. She gave me "Airport/Travel AU + Magical Accidents" and it took me this long to find a way to combine the two. I hope y'all like it.

Long ago, in a land not so far away from here, Alec found himself in a tower. He didn’t know how he had gotten there; all he knew was that he had to get out and that, for some reason, there were no doors or exits of any kind. There was only a small window, which he could barely fit through if he put his mind to it.

The only problem there was that there were no footholds, and he was at least 50 feet from the ground. He sighed and resigned himself to boredom. He’d read all but one book in the tower; a children’s book, it looked like. He opened it and he began to read.

_ “Long ago, a king and queen had a baby son named Alexander…”  _ the book read, and he stopped dead in his tracks. Above the words was an illustration of a young woman with shocking black hair and dark eyes, holding a baby with similar features. It looked a lot like a picture he knew to be in a frame at his mother’s bookshop, only it was painted. Suspicious, he began to read some more.

As he read, he learned that he supposedly had some kind of magic hair, and a woman named Mother Gothel had kidnapped him as a baby and trapped him here. He wasn’t allowed to leave, but he apparently longed to see the lights that floated in the sky every year on his birthday. 

It was when he got to the fifth page that he began to understand.

_ “Meanwhile, a thief named Magnus Bane had stolen something special from the King’s castle, and the royal guards were after him,”  _ the book said, and there was a startlingly accurate rendition of Magnus hiding behind some foliage,  _ “Suddenly, he saw the perfect hiding place- a tower!” _

The fifth page was almost entirely blank. There were vague splashes of color here and there, and the longer he looked at the page, the more color and the clearer the image became.

He rushed to the window and looked down to see Magnus climbing up the tower, a satchel slung over his chest. A familiar lizard was perched on his shoulder and Alec sighed.

“Alexander!” Magnus called, and Alec reached out to help pull his husband inside, “I have no idea what’s going on but I think I’m being chased for whatever is in this bag. I saw the tower and hoped--”

“You’d be able to hide?” Alec finished for him, “I woke up a few days ago in this tower with no memory of how I got here. I just started reading this book, and I think I’ve figured it out.”

“What is it?” Magnus asked, immediately reaching for the book and flipping through it. As he got to page 5, he turned it to show Alec, and there the two of them were, standing by the window. Alec sighed.

“I think we’ve been cursed,” he said, “There’s no other explanation for it.”

Magnus opened the satchel, his eyes widening as he realized the contents. A sparkling gold crown, with the world’s most expensive jewels adorning it, fit perfectly onto Alec’s head.

“I think we may be in the mundane fairy tale known as Rapunzel,” Magnus said, “What’s odd is that it seems to be very…”

“Sugarcoated?” Alec suggested, and Magnus nodded.

“A lot of the most popular versions of these stories are much gorier what we are experiencing here,” Magnus explained.

“What’s the last thing you remember before you woke up here?” Alec asked, afraid of what the answer would be.

Magnus grimaced, “We were babysitting a very cranky Madzie. I think you fell asleep first, but we were watching Disney movies at the loft.”

Alec nodded, “That about lines up with my own memories,” he agreed, “But how do we get out of this?”

Looking at the book, the page had been flipped to the next illustration. It looked like Alec was enthusiastically explaining the floating lights to Magnus, satchel in hand and crown on his head, and the text read,  _ “Tomorrow was Alec’s birthday. If Magnus took him to see the lights, he would return the satchel and crown and allow Magnus to be on his merry way.” _

“You’re not gonna like my answer,” Magnus said and Alec sighed. 

“We’re gonna have to follow the story aren’t we?” he asked, and Magnus nodded gravely.

This was going to be a very long journey.


End file.
